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"Act Won (Things Fall Apart)"

"It was relatively early on in our careers. Trying to maneuver within the corporate world that was Geffen Records, Geffen/MCA. Although there are people who regard Do You Want More?!!!??! as our first major release, I think Things Fall Apart was the real arrival of The Roots, so to speak.

"Where priority lied at that label...energy was invested elsewhere, or the staff was being spread a little thin, they had a lot going on. It didn't necessarily feel like all of the energy that could have been focused upon The Roots was there. I always felt like there was some potential that the band could have reached at that label that we didn't necessarily reach.

It's kinda hard to remember what exactly we were thinking. It feels like 150 years ago, even though it was only 15. [laughs]

"The intro [with the Mo Betta Blues sample] was something we came up with—?uestlove, myself, my manager Rich Nichols. It was something we felt would be cool. We thought it spoke to where the band was. It was applicable to The Roots' actual real-life situation. It seemed to sit in with the other pieces of the mosaic of that album. It's kinda hard to remember what exactly we were thinking. It feels like 150 years ago, even though it was only 15. [laughs]

"It spoke to the dilemma or the conundrum that we were being presented with at that point in our career. Like, just do one thing, or do something totally different? That's where we were at that point in time. I don't know that very much has changed. But in using that sample was the statement we were making."